While a less expensive FR-S/BRZ would definitely make it accessible to a wider range of customers, I don't think it would be a good thing. People are either content with its acceleration or they think it's slow. Going downsteam wouldn't help, and it'll just bring in more kids as clients who are likely going to draw the car away from the image they intended to project with the car and essentially turn it into a RWD Civic to be riced out by all of the high school kids.

I don't know about being riced out, but that's the whole point is finding younger buyers. Face it, i'm 29 years old with a wife and baby now. I can't ever buy a BRZ or FRS unless it's my secondary vehicle. I don't even think a reverse carseat would fit in the backseat, and no way i would put it up front. So you need to swing your demographic to younger buyers who can still get a 2 door coupe as their main car. The whole point of the eclipse 1g and 2g is amount of power under the hood, it weighed the same as the brz but with 140hp. It simply just has to make the owner look cool and score chicks. Only other guys will notice a lack of power, 170hp is plenty enough for a 2800lb car. The volume sales of eclipses were the lower horsepower RS and GS models. But the lower volume GST and GSX gave it some serious credibility as a sports car. Again the turbo models weren't there to make money, they are there to sell the base model cars in high volume. You can make $1000 on a car sale initially, then make $5000 on the car over the next 6 years in financing. Volume sales and factory financing makes a company. Low volume sports cars aren't where you should be trying to make money. Sure you can add extra to your companies bottom line, but that's not how you should sustain your business.

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Originally Posted by DeeezNuuuts83

The problem with that is that the base engine would likely be trash (as Mitsubishi's other engines tend to not be very refined and make harsh noises when they're hustling), and unless the higher-end performance variant is marketed as a completely different model, then potential buyers may be turned off if that model isn't distinguished enough from the base model meant for mass consumption. Just look at cars like the Cobalt SS... it actually wasn't bad, but you saw too much of the regular Cobalt in it.

The Colbalt in it's base form is a dull looking bland family car with 2 doors. The eclipse was never this. The base model eclipse still looked like a sports car. So you really can't compare the cobalt to the eclipse. The cobalt ss only added nicer wheels and a big wing for styling, maybe some subtle ground skirts. But putting tons a makeup on an ugly woman still won't make me sleep with her, she's still ugly. But even then, the cobalt still sold 200,000 units in 2007 which is where mitsu needs to be.